Blind Flight is the true story of two hostages, Brian
Keenan and John McCarthy. What drew you to make a film of their
experiences? I met Brian just six months after he came
out of captivity, and I was struck by how unsettled he seemed. I
was interested in what had happened to him and John, and I wanted
to tell their story. How did the production of the film go? We
shot on location in Beirut, on a very tight budget and schedule
– it helped that I have experience in documentarymaking. We
didn’t rehearse or anything. How did your documentary
background help you? It gave me the ability to respond to the
unexpected, plus an appreciation of attention to detail and of
emotional authenticity. Was there pressure from Keenan and McCarthy to produce
a specific kind of film? No, because all that needed to
be in the script was already in there. We agreed that neither of
them would be present during filming, so as not to put pressure
on the actors (Linus Roache and Ian Hart). Do you think the actors have handled the story well?
To be honest, I initially thought that Linus would be too old for
the part of McCarthy. But in the end, I think that he and Ian
gave really authentic performances. What have your influences been? The work of
Ingmar Bergman in particular. Are you trying to get any kind of message across with
this film? Definitely not – I deliberately ignored
the political context in order to focus on the way in which
captivity stripped Keenan and McCarthy of their masculinity. I
think that we all use masks as a defence mechanism, particularly
political ones, and I wanted to explore that. How would you describe your directing style? I
don’t believe in trying to extract a specific performance
from an actor – I see the role of director as a guiding one,
rather than a dictating one. And are you pleased with the end result, or would you
change anything? If we had had a bigger budget, I might
have emphasised some of the fantasy and dream sequences, and
extended the kidnap scene. It’s a good film, bur Brian and I
agree that it could have been better. Has this film influenced your upcoming projects?
Actually, I have no idea what my next project will be! Maybe
something made in America.ARCHIVE: 1st week TT 2004
Chatting up… John Furse
